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As is the case with all equipment, mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) require regular, preventive maintenance to maintain peak performance. Ensuring a MEWP gets the maintenance it needs is not only important to safety, but to performance as well.

Proper maintenance can:

• Reduce downtime, increasing available rental days and fleet utilization, providing a higher rROIC (rental return on invested capital);
• Strengthen the reputation of a rental company among its customer base;
• And, improve the residual value of a rental machine.

When a rental company fully maintains its MEWP fleet, and performs that maintenance to high standards, it reduces unexpected problems that can arise from deferred or improperly performed maintenance. In doing so, rental companies can decrease downtime, as well as increase available rental days and fleet utilization, maximizing the MEWP’s rental potential.

But, because unseen events do come up, equally critical is early identification and repair of unexpected problems. This is where fleet monitoring through advanced technologies, such as telematics, can prove invaluable to rental operations. For example, the Genie® Lift Connect™ telematics solution monitors machine health, usage and utilization, as well as helps to ensure that rental fleet managers have the data needed to schedule and plan for routine maintenance needs. This telematics program also provides indicators necessary to proactively address issues as they arise, before they become bigger or costlier to repair.

As an added benefit, performing routine maintenance in a timely manner, and addressing other issues early, can enhance a rental company’s reputation among its customers. When rental equipment performs at its peak on the jobsite, customers notice, strengthening the rental company’s reputation as a business that is focused on safety and quality — which can have a positive impact on rental rates.

Finally, consistently and properly maintaining a MEWP has financial benefits when rental companies are ready to retire the MEWP from their fleet. By being able to show full maintenance records, in accordance with prescribed needs, a rental company can realize the maximum residual value of the machine. On Genie products in particular, there is also the benefit to prove its compliance to the OEM recommendations and that genuine OEM parts have been used to maintain the machine.

Regardless of the size, type and age of your fleet, ensuring that maintenance is fully and properly performed has benefits for a rental company’s reputation and bottom line.